Firefox Clinic cheat sheet

This article is no longer maintained, so its content might be out of date.

Thanks for working with Firefox users today. You Rock!
Here are a few handy tips and links to make things a little easier.

Find out what’s wrong

  • If the user has brought their own computer, help them get connected to wi-fi (Mozilla Guest, password Firefox) and have them show you the problem.
  • If the user is doesn’t have a computer with them, start a private browsing session and have them walk you though the problem. Private Browsing instructions

Update Firefox & Plugins

Find a sumo article

Here are articles for some common issues:

Home page, search, toolbar problems

Firefox is slow, hangs, uses too much ram

Other problems

Learning about Firefox features

Walk though the solution

  • Encourage the user do the steps.
  • You can switch the article to show instructions for the users’s operating system (controls in the right hand sidebar of the article).
    For Selector animation

Troubleshooting website problems

  • The easiest thing to try is holding down the Shift key while reloading. This fixed a good number of things.
  • Try clearing Firefox's cookies and cache
    1. Click the menu button Fx89menuButton to open the menu panel.
    2. Click History and select Clear recent history…
    3. In the Time range to clear: drop-down, select Everything.
    4. Below the drop-down menu, select both Cookies and Cache. Make sure other items you want to keep are not selected.
    5. Click Clear Now.
    1. Click the menu button Fx89menuButton to open the menu panel.
    2. Click History and select Clear recent history…
    3. In the When: drop-down, select Everything.
    4. Below the drop-down menu, select both Cookies and site data and Temporary cached files and pages. Make sure other items you want to keep are not selected.
    5. Click Clear.

Main website troubleshooting article

Troubleshooting Firefox problems

Main Firefox troubleshooting articles

Don’t worry, you have backup

  • Don't hesitate to ask someone on the SUMO staff for help — especially Cheng. He is the master.

Give people links to the articles you used to help them

  • Put stickers with the links to the articles you used on people's handouts.
  • If you used an article that we don't have a sticker for it might be easier to write down the search terms you used on SUMO. For example, say go to support.mozilla.org and search for "set up sync."

Fill out the support ticket

Wrap up

  • Ask if they have other questions. Some people will be coming to just learn more about Firefox. Here’s where you can show them your favorite cool tricks (Awesome bar) or add-ons (AdBlock Plus, etc.).
  • Remind people that they can always get help at support.mozilla.org. We're also listed in the Firefox Help menu!
  • Mention that we’re also looking for people willing to be interviewed and to give feedback on new Firefox designs.
  • Thank people for coming!

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